Mars Rover Landing Spots – Blowing In The Wind

Due to the Red Planet’s turbulent weather, teams scouting out possible touchdown zones for a future Mars Rover mission have run into some difficulties. In mid-2003, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project is expected to launch. With a price tag of about $745 million, the two lookalike robotic rovers are slated to land in different parts of Mars. Both will trek about and seek evidence of liquid water that may have been present in Mars’ past. Tense times are guaranteed for all as the spacecraft arrive at their target, then attempt to dive, survive and thrive on Mars. The Mars twins are designed to carry out — in broad terms — the same entry, descent, and landing scheme used by the Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner rover mission in 1997.